For my fabulous giveaway, the winner is Tracy Helixon! (Cue the balloon drop
please!) Congratulations to you, Tracy. I will be sending you an AUTOGRAPHED
copy of The Diamond in the Desert. It
is a terrific book, and I know you’ll enjoy it. I have another giveaway for
today, so stay tuned. By the way, Tracy is also a writer and her first picture
book, Little Isaac’s Big Adventure,
was recently released by Guardian Angel Publishing. You can find out more about
it by clicking HERE.

I really wish I had a better memory. I read a lot of blogs
that have book reviews on them, always searching for interesting books to read.
And I have very catholic taste. I like just about anything other than romance,
but historical fiction and what my Sweet Baboo calls “murder and mayhem” are
high on my list. On one of those many blogs (but I don't remember which one!), I read about a book called Henry Franks by Peter Adam Salomon. It
had an intriguing premise, so I ordered a copy and took it on my recent trip to
Albuquerque. I’m glad I did.

Henry Franks is a sixteen-year-old boy who lost both his
mother and his memory in a terrible accident. He has literally been stitched
back together. (“Four thousand, three
hundred and seventeen stitches, his father had told him once. All the King's
horses and all the King's men had put Henry Franks back together again.”) The surgical scars, red and itchy in the insufferable Georgia summer heat,
make him the most noticeable boy in school, and not in a good way. He is losing
feeling in parts of his body and fears he is dying bit by bit. He has no
friends and is teased and bullied a lot.

Henry spends three afternoons every week seeing a
psychologist, trying in vain to regain his memory. He lives in a big, rather
spooky house with his father, a doctor at a local hospital, who is seldom home,
and when he is, locks himself into his room for long periods. He brings bags of
fast food home for dinner each night and leaves some on the back porch, where
it quickly disappears. Bodies start turning up in the local area, and Henry can’t
help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, his father might be involved.

“Long moments passed with Henry
hitting the glass with the heel of his palm, not even feeling the impact. He
ducked down, squinting to see inside. A flash of lightning illuminated his
father, slumped over the wheel. Henry ran around the car, sliding through a
puddle and ramming his shoulder into the bumper of the minivan next to him. His
ear rang from hitting the light fixture above it, but he didn’t feel any pain.”

Beautiful Justine, who lives next door and takes the same
school bus, begins talking to Henry on the bus. She is rather insistent on
becoming his friend, and finally that is just what happens. Henry starts to
open up to her about his life, and she helps him try to discover who he
really is. All he has to go on is a photo album with a few very old family
pictures. Henry and Justine are both pulled into the dark mystery of Henry’s
life at the same time a hurricane comes crashing into their town and lives
while the serial killer is on the loose. (Whew! That’s a lot to deal with!)

This is a coming-of-age story unlike any I have encountered
before. You have to completely suspend your belief in reality to read this, but
it is a fascinating, highly-imaginative read. Kids from upper middle-grade
through high school will particularly like this one, but I liked it very much
as well and think a lot of adults will enjoy it.

I have a gently-used copy I am giving away this week. Just
leave a comment and I’ll put your name in the hat. Blog, link on Facebook, or
Tweet a link to my blog and let me know for an extra entry. For more middle-grade book reviews, always check on Shannon Messenger's great blog by clicking HERE.

On the book giveaway, this is for U.S. only. Sorry, but it
would be too expensive for me to send books out of the country. But please
leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have trouble
leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just
this post with a comments section on the bottom. Also, if you haven’t signed up
by email, please do. Just look in the upper right-hand corner of this page, pop
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About Me

Thanks for dropping by. I am a writer who works almost entirely on children's books, stories, poems, and articles, including two completed novels. I live in Antelope, CA, near Sacramento-- crazy hot in the summer, cold and wet in the winter, and stunning in the spring and fall. I spent many years teaching high school English and am in love with words, books, theatre, and related subjects. I regularly review children's and young adult books for the San Francisco and Manhattan Book Reviews. I would love to hear from you and what interests you. I have had work published in Highlights and High Five Magazines as well as a rhyming story in the anthology, Fifty Funny Poems for Children published in the U.K., and a memoir included in a Christmas anthology from Harlequin, A Miracle Under the Christmas Tree. Please leave a comment or question or poem.